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Knight
 
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Agghhhh! I need help please!!
I'm in my last year at art school, i can draw ok but i cant write for shit and they expect me to do a 6500-9000 word dissertation!!! the bastards.
I could do with some opinions and input and what better place to ask!?
Its about obsessive love, obsessions with fictional and fantasy people/characters/worlds. Why do people get these obsessions wether they be minor crushes on fictional characters (mmm....lucius Malfoy....mmm...er ahem..) or verging on erotomania (obsessive love dissorder)
I'm interessted in what draws a person to a fictional world and why they think they can become so intertwined in it.
If anyone has any helpful stories, knowledge or insight at all please tell me! feel free to post anonomously!
Thanks !!
ps suggestions for a witty title also accepted graciously
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Wag
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| 6.5 - 9K words seems like a lot but it isn't really. Once you get started you may find it is not enough (most academic word counts are like this, you'll find, I thought 50K was a lot for my thesis but I ended up almost over...). The trick with dissertations is to split it into logical sections and write each one as a seperate 1 - 2K essay, though making sure that you have the overall plan in mind and appropriate links between the sections. One section needs to be an Introduction of some form which should cover what you are looking at, why you are looking at it, definitions of common terms you use and an overview of any previous work you are aware of in this area. The last section should be a discussion of what you have learnt, ending in a summary and a conclusion. The middle bits should be the 'meat' of the piece - weighing up the evidence and making your argument. Breaking it up like this stops it being so intimidating. Also, you may find it easier to write the middle sections first, then the introduction and finally the discussion. Though it is personal preference, so you may find it easier to do it another way. The important point is to start with something you can do easily and quickly so as to avoid 'blank page syndrome'. Once you have something written you will find it easier to write the rest as your confidence is increased. Getting an excellent opening line to each section is also a good way to start - once you have a killer line to start, you may find it easier to do the rest as they should follow logically. Middle sections should discuss all sides of the argument equally - presenting a balanced argument. Remember you can include figures and diagrams and photographs and reproduction of artwork if you need to. Also, quotes are a good way to exemplify things but check the uni rules on these. Usually copyright is not a problem if it is for academic use only (i.e. you do not intend to publish and make money from it) but most universities have a 'no more than four lines of quote' rule to stop people effectively plaguarising someone else's work. Given the title, I would look into some psychology textbooks and medical dictionaries for definitions of cinical obsession. This may be useful for the introduction. You may also want to look in psychology journals for case studies to present in the main section. Make sure you reference these properly (if you need help with this, let me know...). A properly referenced journal article can add hods of kudos to your essay. If you do a search for 'Entrez PubMed' online you will come across a specialist search engine for medical journals. You may find something there. At the very least you will get a reference you can look up in your uni library and you may even get a copy of the abstract which will give you some info (possibly all that you need for your purposes) or (if you are really lucky) a link to a pdf of the full article (which will be available if the university pays a subscription to that journal). Alongside these clinical examples, I would get anecdotal and statistical data from the LRP and RPG community. Maybe make up a questionairre and distribute it and do some graphs and anonymous quotes etc from the data you collect. Hope all this helps
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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Knight
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| Ok the theme of Obsessive Love is a great one. There are so many examples of it in litrature and History. Romeo and Juliet, Marc and Cleopatra, Heathcliffe and Cathy, Quasimodo and Esmarelda Wallace and Grommit (Oh yes there is definate bestial homo-erotica contained in there). I would find containing myself to 10000 words hard and I bet once you get stuck in to it it will be "what to leave out" that,s the snag. Start with a definition "What is Love" largely an evolved chemicaly (hormonal) induced response to reinforce pair bonding for raising offspring. Then go on to talk about how our evolution as a speices has altered this emotion and elevated it to a false higher status. The obsessive element usually comes about when the emotion is unrequited. Some of the most irrational behaviour is displayed by humans under the influence of drugs. Well love (or the hormonal secretions experienced during it) is a drug. When you have written it perhaps you could post it or an extract. I would be interested in reading it. As for a title how about "If you leave me now" as in if you leave me know you will take away the biggest part of me from the song. Which is suggesting the singer would be unwhole without his lover? Just a thought best of luck
"Its only a game"
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Heroic Knight
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| You might want to look at the fantasy character's ability to fulfil the role of the 'perfect' man/woman, as particularly in literature your own imagination can mould the image of a character you enjoy into your image of beauty. Umberto Eco's 'On Beauty' (I think that's the title) has got some interesting bits on the nature of beauty and why people find particular things attractive. Even if it's not enormously helpful, it's a good read and has great examples of artwork through history conforming to the Venus/Mars ideals, and how those have changed throughout history. I really need to get back into reading the rest of it...
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Knight
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No no you havent missed the point at all! In fact you just made me realise how much more there is that i hadnt thought of. I've only found a few really helpful sources so far (phsychoanalytical etc)
Looking at mass hysteria like with the beatles elvis etc is definately something to look into - like fan culture or something?
And i'll try and do a questionairre but making one thats written well i'm gient o understand is a bit of an art form in itself so i might struggle there....actually i'm just struggling in general.
I need case studies dont i? would that be good? concentrating on a few examples.
Respect to anyone who's written a frickin thesis!
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Wag
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If you were doing this as part of a psychology degree rather than an art degree (I have no idea what your tutors want here, though it sounds like the title of a psychology dissertation to me) then I would advise you get some case studies and use them as examples of obsessive love. To strengthen any argument you also need the statistical stuff to back it up. However, as I said, this is advise mainly for a science based degree like psychology (for all that many consider it a pseudoscience it does have a lot of science in it and the best statisticians I know have all done psychology at some point, including me  ).The stuff about the internet is good advise too, especially if you can get something topical like Harry Potter and talk about that. Not sure what the rules may be on quoting stuff from the internet - ask for clarification on that from your tutors - you may have to ask permission from the writers or the owner of the webforums. You may have to select promising posters from what they post online and send them an interview e-mail which you quote from, thereby allowing them to refuse to be quoted by not replying. One question you could put in the questionairre might be the straight 'Have you ever had a crush on a ficticious character?' You can even follow this up with 'If yes, who?'. You may get enough data from those two questions to draw graphs of 'Who has the most people lusting after them based on age group'.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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Knight
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Well we are art students but when it comes to "critical studies" they do seem to expect us to be sociology or psychology experts. The problem i have is that i really hate all that up your own arse art speak you get in artistic criticism so i had no other choice to go for a subject which would meet their demands for something at least with some cultural gubbins and give me something i enjoyed without having to disect anything too arty and pretend that i care about it.
It was my own obsession with computer games/ fictionalworlds etc which made me choose this subject in the first place : )
I think i want to concentrate on gameing culture, link that with people reenacting it via role play, cosplay and stuff, link that to a bit of mass mania maybe? then focus on particularly bad obsessions, what lengths they go to to fulfil these obsessions and whay they are so fixated thn i'll try and round off somehow not sure about the end yet. i'm hoping that if i start writing it it'll just sort of come out...maybe i shouldnt rely on that happening...
Half of me wants to write it from a fairly personal level too but i'm not sure that'd be suitable : /
maybe if i just ignore it itll go away
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Wag
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You need to keep it objective so you shouldn't put any personal thoughts/experiences in until the discussion, and even then it needs to be fairly 'one step removed'. You can (but shouldn't due to percieved impartiality) use your own opinions and experiences as a launch point for your investigation. The point of a dissertation is to 'tell a story' and it is easier to tell one if you know what it is before you start. Starting off with a supposition - 'Obsessive love is the main cause of cancer in the modern third world' - and a reason for thinking this - I heard from my nan's mate that his brother's wife's best friend was obsessed with Ringo Starr and she died of cancer! - is one way to do this. You have to hide the obvious flange, however, and quote the supposition as a question - 'Is obsessive love linked to cancer?' - and the reason as an anecdote - 'It has been reported at length in the media (references) that there is the possibility of a link between...' where you explain the reason and say that you intend to test this hypothesis. You then gather the evidence and build your argument. So long as you can support any statement you make with a published reference, piece of data or a quote you should be fine. You can reference anything - books, newspapers, magazines, films (Mazes and Monsters may be a good one to look at, as will much of the Christian Fundamental literature), web pages etc. You just need to check the rules for doing so which will be published by your university (check with your tutor or, if they are no help, the academic office or the university web page).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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